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Speaker 1
Hello, it's Filipa Bellette from the Ending Body Burnout Show. I'm excited to bring a very special guest onto our podcast today. Monique Catterall. We're going to be talking all things breath and breath work and how to regulate your nervous system by tapping into your own inner medicine, which is our breath. I'm so excited. So a bit about Mon.
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Speaker 1
So Mon is a wellbeing coach specialising in relaxation and stress management with easy to apply tools using the mind, body and breath, she takes a holistic approach inspiring prevention over cure, living over existing and human beings over human doings. Moran runs relaxation and Breathwork programs, exam preps in schools, youth yoga and teaches mindful Pilates and is an access bar's practitioner.
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Speaker 1
Mon is accredited in health Coaching, Breath Coaching, Youth Yoga, Pilates, meditation, mindfulness and access based therapy. She's a bit of an all rounder, and without further ado, we will jump into the conversation now.
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Speaker 2
Hello and welcome to the ending Body Burn Out Show, where your hosts, Chris and Filly co-founders of Multi-award-winning Functional Medicine Practice, serving busy people with energy mood and got issues.
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Speaker 1
Well, busyness, overwork, addictive doing and perfectionism might be the norm. It's not normal and it's a major contributor to health issues.
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Speaker 2
Our goal with this show is to give you a holistic route root cause approach to healing your body so that you don't have to continue doctor or diet hopping or popping a gazillion supplements hoping something might stick.
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Speaker 1
So get ready to heal your body, get your spot back deeply, connect with yourself and step into the life of your dreams. Let's dive in. Hello? Man, we are so low.
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Speaker 3
Are you.
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Speaker 1
Good? So excited to have you on the podcast. We've been like social socials, stalkers of each other, I think for a while now, and we've actually never spoken in person. So it's like.
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Speaker 3
Something like I'm fangirling right now. Oh.
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Speaker 1
Little fish shoe. All right, Shall we just dive straight in?
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Speaker 3
Yes, let's do it.
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Speaker 1
Okay. Awesome. So we find that most healers, practitioners, this is my case anyway, often come into this profession of natural medicine, holistic healing because of our own body burn out experiences. I just love to know, like, let's unpack your story first, because you have a pretty fascinating story that I think a lot of people can learn from.
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Speaker 3
Yes, sure. Yes. I've experienced body burn out majorly a couple of times in my life. And the first one. Okay, pretty private, but probably about 2016. My son was 17 at the time and he nearly died from septicaemia. And it was quite a horrific journey. It was quite stressful trying to get him diagnosed and momma's instincts kick in.
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Speaker 3
And you know, when your child is unwell, especially when they're tough, you know, especially when they watch blood being drawn to watch stitches going to their legs, you know, like and my I knew something was wrong and it was very, very hard to get him anyone to listen to take us seriously. We kept getting dismissed. So, yeah, that led to the stress of all that which ended up being a 16 month long journey.
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Speaker 3
Wow. Yeah. I ended up, of course, with PTSD, adrenal fatigue and just completely burnt out. Completely lost myself.
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Speaker 1
Yeah. Yeah.
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Speaker 3
He's okay now. These are kind of, by the way.
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Speaker 1
Did he did he get better? And then you got better or he got better and then your burn out from the body point of view is just like, why am I not bouncing back? Even though I'm now not in that base situation?
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Speaker 3
No, I would say his journey was probably his journey was 6 to 9 months before he was actually cleared by the head of infectious disease. And during that six months, he was on 2000 milligrams of antibiotics a day, keeping him alive. And so during that whole time I was unwell and I was just a zombie running on autopilot pilot.
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Speaker 3
So it probably wasn't until he started to get better and got cleared that I started to get better because I, you know, as mums we put ourselves last and especially when you have a sick child, you it's like you don't, you have no awareness. You just running on autopilot. And of course he was coming first the situation, the appointments, you know, the check ups and during that six months he had no immune system.
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Speaker 3
So I was told that a common cold would kill him because it could turn into a mania. And so I was in a heightened state. The six day months. If he had asthma, you know, I was like, Are you okay? Oh, my God, are you okay? And it got to the point where I even had my GP on speed dial because of the stress.
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Speaker 3
And it was like, what if he gets to go straight to. Yeah, if he gets to go straight to ADR? And it was Yes. So it wasn't, it wasn't going to all that till he was actually pleased that I started to. Yeah. I guess I have like a breakdown. Like a mini breakdown. Yeah. Yeah.
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Speaker 1
Which, which makes sense too. Because if you're in that, if you're only in the environment where there's chronic stress, your glands and your neurotransmitters would have been going nuts. Like, it's actually really hard to heal in that situation.
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Speaker 3
It's crazy to look back and it makes me realise how amazing the human body is that we can actually semi function and sustain for quite a long period of time before we do crash. It's like we live off adrenaline. Yeah, well.
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Speaker 1
Basically that that's what happens. And then I get the blood test. It's like you have no adrenaline left. Yeah, well, if people do that, you know, it's like this is below detectable limit.
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Speaker 3
And you just, you fake it like I did become very withdrawn. I became very anti social. I remember my friends were trying to catch up with me and I'd be like, Yeah, you know, in my mind I had no intention of going and on the day I would say, Oh, last minute with that excuse, you know, like a headache or I'm not well or, you know, Yeah.
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Speaker 3
And then they started to realise they like, you know, you're not, you're not that like we're worried about you. Yeah. Yeah. And some people didn't don't even know what I went through because I'm not one to post it all over socials. And it wasn't my journey, it was my son's journey and he's quite private. And he still to this day, doesn't really like talking about it.
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Speaker 3
So I think he can't remember a lot of it. Yeah. Yeah. How old? So it wasn't it wasn't he was 17 at the time.
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Speaker 1
17. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. That's so interesting that he doesn't remember it. He probably has his own.
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Speaker 3
Yeah.
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Speaker 1
Internal system is just like that is a period of your life that I don't want to have in the forefront of my memory. Because it was traumatising. Like trauma. Yeah.
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Speaker 3
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And for a long time, he, because we were seeing so many different people there, there was head of infectious disease, there was orthopaedics because it was growing inside his hip joint and downing. So we had to have X-rays because it was eating Whiting's bones, the abscesses, and then there were constant blood monitoring. There was physio appointments because he left 75% of his strength in that area.
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Speaker 3
So all these appointments and he would he would have anxiety about driving past the hospital.
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Speaker 1
Mm mm.
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Speaker 3
And that was a worry for me too because he was holding back, telling me what was really going on, but he didn't want to have to go back.
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Speaker 1
Yeah. Wow, that's crazy. So it was.
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Speaker 3
Also stress related.
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Speaker 1
Yeah, absolutely. So you mentioned to burn out adrenal fatigue. Like, it sounds like depression is while if you were just, like, disconnected from the world, did you have any physical symptoms or was it more just like the mental shutdown?
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Speaker 3
It was more mental. I just I think I was just a zombie, like existing not living. And I do remember I lacked motivation. You know, I wasn't exercising and I wasn't socialising, but physically I was crying all the time and and I had clients coming to me. I mean I hairdresser 36 years and I still do that a couple of days a week and I would be in the toilet sobbing in between clients and I and I'd been there going to stop, just stop, just stop, you know, and, and a client would walk in and I'd be, I'd, I'd like, they'd go, Are you all right?
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Speaker 3
And I'd go, Oh, I just had one. I was coughing fits, you know, when your eyes water and they don't have to be all like, So what's going on in your world? And, and the minute they left, I would physically and I would just curl up in a bowl sometimes and sold and sold and sold. And my poor partner and of course, this was when my kids went around.
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Speaker 3
I've also got an older daughter who was doing her uni and she was stressed about uni and I couldn't show her how worried or stressed I was. I didn't want my son to see I was there. And so when I had these crumbling meltdowns, it was it was when no one was around me. My partner called me a couple of times and poor guy, he he just didn't know what to do.
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Speaker 3
He'd run away. Yeah, but yeah, physically I had no energy. Very easily irritated. Funny enough, I remember craving a lot of junk and I was eating a lot of junk during this time because I had no motivation and energy and I just stopped caring. Yeah. And I stopped, you know, probably cooking as well as I normally do. I know when he was in hospital, he was in hospital for a month and because I was there to like midnight one, 130 in the morning, I was too scared to leave him.
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Speaker 3
I was calling in to McDonald's pretty much every night on the way home and just having a small fries or, you know, apple pie or. Yeah. So, yeah, physically, no motivation, no energy, irritated craving junk.
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Speaker 1
Yeah. Yeah. Which is, which is not that funny actually. Sometimes you feel like, yeah, it's kind of like it's usually like I don't have motivation, but the physical side of things too is when you are in adrenal fatigue, you're constantly craving things to try and bring up cortisol. So it's almost like sugar and junk food will actually spike your blood sugar levels.
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Speaker 1
And then it's almost like it tries to artificially increase cortisol as well in a in like a healthy way.
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Speaker 3
That makes sense.
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Speaker 1
But then everything crashes and then it's like, yeah, now I need more.
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Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah. And I, I swear I became addicted to potato crisps. Yeah, I had this specific flavour and I would eat the big food packets like three times a week, which of course when you're unwell and you're not exercising, I've always considered myself, I've always been quite active, I've considered myself quite healthy. And because I'd put on weight disorder, I remember looking in the mirror and feeling like I didn't recognise a person looking back at me.
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Speaker 3
I remember I felt like I'd aged physically in the face by about ten years.
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Speaker 1
Yeah. Wow.
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Speaker 3
Yeah. And I did have a couple of clients at the time say to me, Are you okay? And if they said that, I'd cry. Yeah.
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Speaker 1
So? So we like in functional medicine, we always want to get to the root cause of why, why the body system's been out in the first place. So you mentioned stress. With more hindsight and wisdom, do you like was it just stress or had you kind of like in the process or after you healed, you're like, Oh, why?
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Speaker 1
Why did I lose? Why did I lose the plot? Because I could see other other mothers with extraordinary journeys, with their children's health issues, but they don't end up. They're like, Have you ever kind of unpacked that for yourself around what happened?
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Speaker 3
Yeah, it was definitely mostly stress related, and I think it was ego related as well because, you know, I, I was if I wanted to be everyone's rock, you know, I wanted to hold it together for my son while he healed. I didn't want to add stress to him. My daughter was doing stressful uni because she was wanting to be a physio.
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Speaker 3
I didn't want to, you know, I didn't want them to see that was not okay. I suppose so that contributed as well. I'd say it was definitely stress which led to the poor nutrition.
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Speaker 1
Yeah.
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Speaker 3
Yeah. And then, you know, we know the gut brain connection and most of us do. So yeah, I think it was mostly mostly stress, definitely. And, and stress because I didn't look after myself. I didn't prioritise self care.
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Speaker 1
Yeah. And I think you hit the nail on the head to where you said it was ego driven as well because it's more around like our response to stress and say if we have this identity or this belief about the self that we need to be the one that everyone turns to. It was interesting what you said way like when you first started that story.
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Speaker 1
All mothers put their kids first and you know, we I think he said we feel up, they're cut first. Before I'm like, well, not all mothers.
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Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah, yes, yes.
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Speaker 1
So there's a certain pattern trait that it's just like can when big things happen, more susceptibility to lead to burnout. So. So son got better.
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Speaker 3
Yeah.
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Speaker 1
You got out of that like constant vigilant she's going to die type of brain loop happening. What else was it just like? Was it just he got better and then you hear or did you actively have to do things as well to heal from anything?
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Speaker 3
And yeah, I actively had to do things first off, and that trip has recommended some. So I was spending all this money on water, kefir and probiotics and probiotics, you know, because I was told he had no immunity. Yeah. There was one thing I learnt about going through the system the way we did was this such a huge lack of communication and knowledge and information for us?
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Speaker 3
And then I mentioned it one day very proudly to the head of infectious disease, and she's like, You're wasting your money because he's taking antibiotics. 500 milligrams at 8:00, 1:00, 6:00, 10:00, they're getting killed off in his body. So they're not really surviving long enough to do anything. And I was like, oh, so long story short, I was recommended some healthy powders, the juice plus whole food patterns.
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Speaker 3
And I looked into those and I started because he also because of what he was going through, he wasn't really feeling like eating. But I knew the gut brain connection. I knew the importance of nutrition for him. And it was really hard because he wasn't really eating that well. And so I got onto these, which basically because they're food grade, they're a nutraceutical, they enter the bloodstream and they start working quickly.
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Speaker 3
And we noticed a difference within three weeks of him on them. Yeah. Like I was, I was blown away and he just kept getting better and better. And I guess it's because even though he wasn't always strong antibiotics, he had that nutrition. So I my first step to recovering was I saw what they were doing for him and I went, Well, I'm going to start taking this.
00;16;55;21 - 00;17;18;08
Speaker 3
Yeah. And so I started taking those which I started to feel a little better. And then it was actually a really good close girlfriend of mine that did massage at the time, and I won't give her a plug. She doesn't do it anymore. But we were actually writing me a bit of musical theatre and we were actually rehearsing.
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Speaker 3
We're in the middle of rehearsing for a show that I was in with her at the time when my son got sick and when this happened, I actually pulled out for a bit because of the stress, but then my son got so stressed that he blamed himself that I dropped out of the show. Something I love doing. And it started to stress him that I would be in hospital visiting him and he'd be like, I'm supposed to be at rehearsals.
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Speaker 3
All right, it must be. Or as it was. And I would have to pretend to go to rehearsals. So he didn't stress and I would pull up outside the rehearsal room and I could go in. I'd just sit there and cry. And one night I went in and I just burst into tears. I couldn't do it. I couldn't remember anything.
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Speaker 3
I had brain fog. I felt like I was going crazy. And I ran out crying and my girlfriend came in after me and she said, I'm really worried about you. She said, I want you to come for a message. What are you doing? Monday afternoon I put her off because in my egotistical mind and not fully understanding what that message would do for me, I said to I said to myself, like, how can I lie there and relax and enjoy a massage when my son's in hospital?
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Speaker 3
So it's like, how can I do that? It's like, it was quite bizarre and clear thinking straight at the time. And she just persisted. She persisted with me over a couple of weeks and it got to the point where I completely broke down in her presence. And she basically said, You're coming Monday at 430. And she gave me an hour and a half massage and I kid you not.
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Speaker 3
She had to put a face towel under the hull because I sobbed so much and not to the whole hour and a half. And it's like she did say to me, you store stress in your body, so this is probably going to replace that stress and let it out. And that was my first step into healing little bit, all second step after the whole Foods.
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Speaker 3
Little did I know that at the time. And I just remember feeling the next day, feeling a little normal again. And I had forgotten what it felt like. And until she gave me that gift, I get a degree. Oh, until she gave me that. I guess it made me realise that I guess how sick I was. And it just made me more determined to keep feeling that way and get better.
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Speaker 3
And so I started going to her weekly and I found that that feeling lasted a few days. And then the more I went, the longer that feeling lasted. So that that was my journey to healing. And then from there, another girlfriend who lived a couple of doors round, who was a nurse, she was quite worried about me and Bayley and she said to me, You're coming to yoga.
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Speaker 3
There's a beautiful yoga teacher in my local community who's now close friend of mine, and she just basically said, You're coming with me. And I cancelled the first time because in my head I'm unwell, I've got no energy, I'm not flexible, I'm not fit. You know, how embarrassing. And then.
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Speaker 1
Those.
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Speaker 3
Excuses and ego and she told me how amazing it was. She had really, really bad insomnia. And she said she slept that night. And so the following week I went with her and soon that was my healing journey, started starting to feel the benefits of looking after myself and nourishing myself.
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Speaker 1
So cool. I love it like it was. It sounds like for you a holistic approach.
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Speaker 3
Oh.
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Speaker 1
It wasn't just like one thing. That was the magic pill. It was.
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Speaker 3
Not.
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Speaker 1
Finding finding a bunch of things and eating like your tribe and stuff as well. Yes.
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Speaker 3
Oh, absolutely. And that that set me on my path of also for my son. I was so petrified of all the drugs that he was. He had to pick warning when he was in the hospital. And I was paranoid about the long term effects of that. You know. And so I started to go, right, well, I need to keep looking after him while he's at home and in my care and I'm treating him.
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Speaker 3
And that's I signed up to I in and for the health coaching accreditation. And at the time it was it was for me as well. It was for all of us. And that's where my holistic journey started.
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Speaker 1
Yeah.
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Speaker 3
And I learned yeah, I learnt all about the gut brain connection and yeah.
00;22;29;23 - 00;22;48;25
Speaker 1
Awesome. I wanted to dig into that. So you have accredited in many modalities as our listeners would have had when I was writing out your bio. But you're, I think correct me if I'm wrong, but one of your big passions around what you do is the power of breath in teaching people how to become their own self fearless self Regulators.
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Speaker 3
Yeah, absolutely. Yes.
00;22;51;02 - 00;22;54;14
Speaker 1
So why do you love Breathwork so much? Oh, my.
00;22;54;14 - 00;23;27;06
Speaker 3
Gosh. Because it's something we do every day. Anyway. It's free. It's easy, and it has an instant physiological effect on our body. And so most people aren't aware that of the impact that breathing empirically has on our body. And so we're doing it anyway. It's for free. So why not learn how to do it properly, you know, for short term benefits and long term gains like, yeah, yeah.
00;23;27;08 - 00;23;53;16
Speaker 1
Yeah. How does it work? Especially for our listeners? I have a understanding, although I love to have experts in the industry come on too, because I'm like, Wow, I didn't know that. I didn't know that depth. But now so. So you be on stress management. So how does Breathwork help with stress management? And then also like emotional regulation as well?
00;23;53;19 - 00;24;21;26
Speaker 3
Well, I think emotionally, first of all, it changes our focus. So especially for people who are anxious and with anxiety, we tend to be overthinking stuff too far ahead in the future that most likely won't happen. Or we're constantly circling about worst case scenarios and everything that can go wrong. And and so with with anxiety in particular, it's a change of focus and we only have one focus.
00;24;21;26 - 00;24;55;05
Speaker 3
So emotionally that's great. And it grounds us, which is another, you know, there's great grounding techniques, but physiologically the impact on our central nervous system. And for those that don't know that are listening, the central nervous system, you know, regulates our body. And there's two arms of that. Now it's in this sympathetic nervous system and our penis, parasympathetic nervous system.
00;24;55;05 - 00;25;21;13
Speaker 3
And I call the penis the Green Zone, like the good zone where we want to be most of the time. And then we have our sympathetic, which is our fight flight phrase. So and our parasympathetic is our rest and digest. And so the impact breath has on flipping our central nervous system into our penis zone when we need it.
00;25;21;13 - 00;25;54;15
Speaker 3
And instantly is phenomenal. And it regulates our heart rate, it regulates our blood pressure. When I did my training with a Brazilian guy, he he talked about some research that had been done. I can't remember who took my head, who did it, but where a study was done and when you know how to breathe properly, it was shown that that regulated and the blood pressure quickened that blood pressure tablet.
00;25;54;18 - 00;25;58;04
Speaker 3
Wow. That's yeah, it's pretty good.
00;25;58;07 - 00;26;19;27
Speaker 1
It's interesting. I actually went to my GP. I do see GP's when I need to, but we were just talking. There's like so many so many jobs going around and I just had this cough that wasn't going a away and I had to go away into state. I'm like, just want to make sure that there's no infection. Anyway, cool story.
00;26;20;00 - 00;26;43;27
Speaker 1
But she did test my blood pressure and I was talking while she was doing it and it was like quite high. She's like, hang on, just take a breath and don't talk. And so I just like, relax. And it's like, oh, magically my blood pressure was back to normal. Yeah, they I found for me when I started my own health journey, probably even before I got into functional medicine.
00;26;43;27 - 00;27;04;08
Speaker 1
It was more when I was like investigating food and toxins and all that sort of stuff. And then I came across the power of breath. I think it might have been poor check. Maybe I watched a little YouTube video or something and I was shocked that I couldn't breathe, breathe past my ribs. Like it was just like getting stuck in my chest.
00;27;04;15 - 00;27;05;02
Speaker 3
Yeah.
00;27;05;05 - 00;27;28;14
Speaker 1
And even doing that practice where, you know, you put a hand on your chest, one in your belly. I could not I could not get my my belly to rise. It was insane. I did after a month of just like every day, every hour of practising, like getting right down into the diaphragm, belly breath. But do you see that often?
00;27;28;14 - 00;27;34;11
Speaker 1
Like with people that you work with, Especially people who are anxious? Yeah. Like, yes, I would definitely.
00;27;34;11 - 00;28;03;15
Speaker 3
And yeah, and I had it recently. I've been doing a bit of work with college students and I've created a little program for exam prep to help the students just give them some coping tools, stress management tools and the mindfulness practitioner as well. So some mindset confidence stuff and some tips about staying off their gadgets and amps and sleep and things like that.
00;28;03;17 - 00;28;38;17
Speaker 3
And yeah, there was a student that struggled with she felt felt she felt worse afterwards, not better. And yeah, and, and the thing is too, I find people who are maybe a little bit anxious. I mean, I don't know much about this student, but people who feel a little bit anxious or I find if you're a perfectionist as well, sometimes when and I guess to in that situation I only have a short time with them.
00;28;38;19 - 00;29;20;28
Speaker 3
So ideally when I'm teaching these tools, it's nice to have time to practise it a few times and get into a rhythm and yeah, and so this was quite a short time frame to give a lot of tools to them. And so yeah, I think maybe sometimes we can get caught up in our heads. We're so such creatures of habit and you know, for years we've been breathing a certain way, which is mostly shallow breathing, and all of a sudden you're a perfectionist, you might be an overthinker and someone's telling you to breathe differently and you can get a little bit caught up in your head about your thoughts can rise away from you.
00;29;20;28 - 00;29;45;14
Speaker 3
And instead of actually being present in that moment and focusing on what your body's doing and the breath you get over in your head and go, Am I going too fast? Am I going to slow? Am I doing this right? Oh, is my body going out or in or whatever? And if I get too caught up in their heads without that awareness, they just automatically go not can't do that.
00;29;45;16 - 00;29;49;22
Speaker 3
Yeah, that doesn't work for me. Yeah, yeah.
00;29;49;25 - 00;29;52;16
Speaker 1
Yeah. That's so interesting.
00;29;52;18 - 00;30;14;17
Speaker 3
And it's, it's like it's a it's a muscle that needs practising. I say to people, you know, if you want to build your biceps you don't go to the gym and do a few reps and go, Oh that didn't work. It takes consistency in practice. And when I talk to the students, I say to them, You know, when you were a little child and you were learning to walk, you didn't fall over though.
00;30;14;17 - 00;30;32;05
Speaker 3
I can't walk and give up on it. When you're learning to ride a bike, you don't have the aggression and go to, Well, I can't do that. You keep going into it. You can then say me. When you learn to drive a car, you bunny hop, you stole, you grind gears or back in my day it was manual.
00;30;32;05 - 00;31;05;26
Speaker 3
I think they're automatic now, but. And you don't go, I can't drive. You stick at it and we can. Yeah. And and for some I won't say for everyone. Some people really embrace breathwork and love it and dive right in. But yeah for some depending what's going on for you, you can struggle and it might not be easy for you at first, but with those people I do say don't give up, keep practising.
00;31;05;26 - 00;31;17;01
Speaker 3
And there are so many different techniques out there and maybe not every technique is going to be for everyone. It's just finding what works for you. I think.
00;31;17;03 - 00;31;41;06
Speaker 1
Yeah, something although I pushed through it, so it probably wasn't the thing that stopped me from being able to breathe deeply because I was able to retrain. But something I find impacts people and hydrogen is so if the stomach is going to like, get stuck up into the oesophagus pushing up into the lungs in the hot and often like the diaphragm wall.
00;31;41;09 - 00;31;52;28
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah. It's almost I mean, it's not impossible to do that like non-functional breath, but it is not functional, the stomach being there. And so it can impact things.
00;31;53;00 - 00;32;12;08
Speaker 3
And one thing I did learn to, you know, a lot of people say take a deep breath and some times taking a deep breath can be negative for somebody, especially if they used to shallow breathing or they've got restrictions. And so they may not need to take a deep breath. They may just need to slow it down.
00;32;12;10 - 00;32;13;14
Speaker 1
Yeah.
00;32;13;16 - 00;32;31;20
Speaker 3
And sometimes just slowing it down and focusing and being present is enough. It doesn't necessarily have to be deep and sometimes that's a good start to breath work and just slowly working your way. We're all different.
00;32;31;22 - 00;32;52;27
Speaker 1
Yeah, that's really interesting. Before we hit record, I said, Oh, Chris would have loved to be on the interview today, but he's not feeling well. And I said to mine, Oh yeah, he's he's the one who like his daily breathwork and he's really like consistent in that. But then as you were just saying that, I'm like, I do breath work every day too.
00;32;52;27 - 00;33;13;23
Speaker 1
I just do it more. Usually if I'm doing kind of like reprogramming belief work or visualisation or listening to a hypnosis, my breath would just naturally fall into that rhythm without me doing holding my breath, performing it for 4 minutes to 4 seconds and you know, Yes.
00;33;13;29 - 00;33;45;03
Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's the thing. I think when you're a quiet, holistic, I think it does become a bit of a, a habit and a programming where we're probably doing it a lot and don't realise that anyway. Yeah, Yeah, I know myself. It's so habitual for me now and I do it so often now, and I know this because I no longer super irritable, I'm no longer super reactive like, you know, compared to how I used to be.
00;33;45;03 - 00;34;12;13
Speaker 3
I'm so too. And you know, I take little moments throughout the day. So if I'm driving out and about and I hit a red light, I'm like, instead of going, I study red light. Why me? I've got to get somewhere. It's like bonus. I get to do some Breathwork Yeah, as a result of the red light. Yeah. And if I am made to wait for an appointment instead of getting all worked up and angry about wasting my time, I don't waste my time.
00;34;12;13 - 00;34;21;04
Speaker 3
It's like bonus. I do my Breathwork Yeah, I love it. Yeah. Supermarket aisle. I stand there and do my Breathwork Yeah.
00;34;21;06 - 00;34;26;06
Speaker 1
Yeah. This is so awesome. It's so awesome. So it's super easy. Just implement it into your daily life.
00;34;26;09 - 00;34;30;01
Speaker 3
There are certain techniques. Yes. Where people don't even know you're doing it. Yeah.
00;34;30;07 - 00;34;50;00
Speaker 1
Yeah. So definitely helps with things like anxiety and overwhelm. Yeah. I mean irritability. Yes. And if you're in that fast paced go, go, go flat response, have you noticed any physical symptom improvements or reduction with like clients that you've worked with with Breathwork? I'm curious.
00;34;50;03 - 00;35;28;22
Speaker 3
Yes, I've had people report on improved slate. Yeah, less irritability, great stress metrics. It's it's helped a lot of snakes. I've even had young girls say that it's been able to prevent anxiety attacks. That's with other work as well but based around some breath work, emotional freedom, tapping mindset stuff. But I had one client recently that attended one of my workshops and she jumped in my inbox a couple of days later and said, I freaking love you.
00;35;28;25 - 00;35;54;25
Speaker 3
And one of the one of the techniques she's been saying, a psychologist and one of the techniques I taught her, she was coming into my session. She was having mass panic attacks. And I when I open up a session, I let people know that some stuff can come up for them depending what's going on for them. And I give them permission that it's a safe space.
00;35;54;25 - 00;36;20;26
Speaker 3
And if they feel they need to cry. They cry. I don't want to scare anyone else because it doesn't always happen. But I feel it's important to have awareness. And if they are going through and get a bit teary that it's not right or wrong, like it's just as is, release it. And as soon as I said that she broke down in this room and I thought, oh, you know, but she stuck it out.
00;36;20;28 - 00;36;46;28
Speaker 3
She stuck the whole session out. She did the work. And she said to me one of the techniques in particular, she said, has been able to stop my anxiety attacks. So she she now has awareness in her body of it coming on and she removes herself and she does this particular technique that works for her and it actually prevents this anxiety attacks from going full blown.
00;36;47;01 - 00;36;50;03
Speaker 3
Wow. Yeah. So that was pretty awesome.
00;36;50;06 - 00;36;57;14
Speaker 1
It was quite a few years ago, but I did a Wim Hof workshop, which included most of it was Breathwork and in the ice plunge.
00;36;57;15 - 00;36;58;14
Speaker 3
Oh yes.
00;36;58;19 - 00;37;22;28
Speaker 1
But the Breathwork I remember at the time I had severe back pain, sciatica, pain. And I remember during the Breathwork session it was a sensation. I think it was just like one energy light radiating in the spot of my back that was really sore. And then after that, that pain disappeared.
00;37;23;01 - 00;37;24;19
Speaker 3
Well, was amazing.
00;37;24;19 - 00;37;26;08
Speaker 1
Amazing cycle.
00;37;26;08 - 00;38;19;12
Speaker 3
Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. Well, breath work's been proven to boost our immunity as well. Helps with focus, helps with clarity. There are so many benefits to breathwork. And one thing that I found interesting when I did my training was that he taught us noises as breathing mouths before eating. And there's so many different modalities out there and there are, you know, like women offer and all of that and I also do purpose and but mouth inhaling our mouth for long periods of time is actually really bad for you and you'll find snores tend to mouth breathe and long term that's not great for us short term it serves a purpose for different things.
00;38;19;12 - 00;38;33;02
Speaker 3
But and so children, young children who mouth breathe consistently, it affects the development of their palate and jaw. Yeah. So that's really interesting. Yeah.
00;38;33;05 - 00;38;44;10
Speaker 1
So crazy. I forgot to ask you before we hit recorded though. I did kind of like send you some points and stuff it you having to do a five minute for at work.
00;38;44;13 - 00;38;50;12
Speaker 3
Oh absolutely. Oh what's the point in talking about breath work if we have to do it.
00;38;50;14 - 00;38;55;23
Speaker 1
Because this is so good, like people listening again, like, as you said, it's just so easy to incorporate.
00;38;55;23 - 00;38;57;11
Speaker 3
So, yes.
00;38;57;12 - 00;39;02;15
Speaker 1
Maybe don't do it while you're driving charges, okay. Or it's okay.
00;39;02;18 - 00;39;32;16
Speaker 3
Yeah. Well, yes, there's different techniques. I mean, I do do regular breath work when I'm driving, but I'm experienced and it's not it's not an extreme one that makes you light-headed or dizzy or I don't need too much focus. So I do a there's a couple a real easy favourite one on my balance breathing. It's just where you're slowing down, your inhale through your nose for a count of four and then you're exhaling for a count of four.
00;39;32;16 - 00;40;04;26
Speaker 3
And so that's safe to do. And I do do that when I'm driving. Yeah, I'm doing that all the time. Sometimes when you've been talking on this podcast, I'm sitting, I'm doing it so I don't get nervous and stay calm. But yes, I think one that I will share with the audience, which is a good introduction and it's not too stressful and they can't get too caught up in their head about it is just having that awareness of connecting breath to body and just slowing it down.
00;40;04;29 - 00;40;09;12
Speaker 3
And so what we do is we just get comfortable. I'm just going to then.
00;40;09;15 - 00;40;16;25
Speaker 1
I'm going to meet my microphone so that if I'm like, okay, then you're not hearing me. You just telling you.
00;40;16;28 - 00;40;49;28
Speaker 3
Okay, so we get comfortable, whatever that is for you. And what I wouldn't allow you to do is soften down the shoulders. When we're stressed, our shoulders tend to be up in the air, out, use stuff the shoulders and relax. The jaw. Just the jaw. When we stress stuff on my shoulders, relax the jaw. And I'd love you to close down your eyes and just connect to your body.
00;40;50;00 - 00;41;39;18
Speaker 3
And by closing down your eyes, you're just getting rid of other distractions. And then I want you to take a moment just to pay attention to your body. How are you feeling? Is your posture nice and straight? Our bodies are always trying to tell us something if we stop and pay attention to it. And then what? I'd love for you to do is just take a nice, slow inhale through your nose, and then we're going to exhale through your nose and it's just going to be slower than what you usually do.
00;41;39;20 - 00;42;32;26
Speaker 3
It doesn't have to stay. And I'm going to count because a lot of people will say, I don't know how slow to cook, so I'll count as a God. So inhale two, three, 4x3, two, one. Inhale, two, three, four. Exhale three, two, one. And it's just slowing it down to what you're normally doing. And then for this little exercise, we're going to keep doing that and we're just going to do a set of three.
00;42;32;28 - 00;43;20;10
Speaker 3
So inhaling, that's one. And then just let the exhale bring If it's comfortable for you to go deeper, please do. And on your next child, that's two. And just let the exhale bring staying connected to body. And then your next inhale is three and just let the exhale be. And if you lose count, that's okay. Just start from one again.
00;43;20;12 - 00;44;04;11
Speaker 3
And if your thoughts start rising, just come back to the breath. What does it feel like in your body when you're breathing through your nose? Is it warm or is it cold? When you breathe in your chest rises. When you exhale, the stomach shrinks. And that's just a lovely little simple exercise where you can actually just connect to breath and body, ground yourself and just play and just lunge and slow your breath down.
00;44;04;13 - 00;44;11;27
Speaker 3
So that's usually an intro breath that I start most of my work with.
00;44;11;29 - 00;44;23;04
Speaker 1
I think you will feel it. It's crazy how quickly it can change your state, like within within seconds.
00;44;23;06 - 00;44;49;18
Speaker 3
That is. Yeah, that's usually how I introduce breathing. It's just really simple and it's just about connecting and just practising because most of us breathe in and in and out, in and out too fast and too shallow. And so that little exercise can just get you connected. Most of us don't connect to our body where Just go, go, go, Hustle, hustle, hustle.
00;44;49;24 - 00;45;02;08
Speaker 3
And we just unconsciously leave our lives and we can getting to that existing rather than leaving. And so this just brings us back to the present moment, I think as well.
00;45;02;11 - 00;45;29;29
Speaker 1
Yeah. Yeah. Now that might be the answer to the next question, but if you have anything else that you want to throw out. Yeah. So most of our listeners a busy been out experiencing energy, mood and gut issues. What advice or tips would you give someone who is feeling like this and like just easy first steps to help someone become more regulated.
00;45;30;01 - 00;46;01;03
Speaker 3
Oh I could talk about this for ever. So the easy, easy first steps. The easy first steps would be to start taking moments throughout your day to just stop and breathe. And it doesn't have to be a technique or a counting or box breathing or a rapid breath. Just take moments to stop and focus on slowing it down.
00;46;01;05 - 00;46;34;08
Speaker 3
So that's one easy step. Another is getting to nature daily, even if it's just 5 minutes in your backyard or out on your deck in the mornings when the morning when the day I say too many people get up, turn the TV, turn the radio and read the paper, and they just absorbing all this white noise right off the bat and something stresses them out or someone upset Instagram or they go to Bill or so.
00;46;34;10 - 00;46;58;10
Speaker 3
To me, a simple thing, I guess in a nutshell, in our issue, stop nourishing. I always start my mornings in nature. In winter, I'll have a coffee in the morning. I'm a big smoothie go. I will go outside. Even if it's cold, I will put a coat on and just stand outside. If it's only for 5 minutes and just listen.
00;46;58;10 - 00;47;26;17
Speaker 3
If the sun's out, I'll close my eyes and feel it on my face and just listen to what's going on around me. The birds, the dogs, the neighbours. And what's 5 minutes. And if you died in our sheer sunlight on your skin, if you can, people who work in the office, if you can get outside on your lunch break and roll up your sleeves or get your legs exposed to some sun, more movement.
00;47;26;19 - 00;47;53;00
Speaker 3
When when we move our bodies, we feel better. But it's part hoarding, nourishing yourself daily, I think, in a way that works for you. And it doesn't have to be gym classes or costing money, just some sort of self-care. I get clients to write a doilies and write all the things that bring them joy and I'm like, Do something off.
00;47;53;00 - 00;48;40;22
Speaker 3
I do at least every day. And that's just not be playing with your puppy for 5 minutes. But I think prioritising nourishing you, self-care, diet and nutrition for the gut brain connection, being really conscious of what you eat, sleep, eliminating stress and getting support where needed like yourselves, like Chris increase in feeling, you know, obviously. Yeah. I mean obviously taking control and and looking after self but sometimes that's a great first step and it's easy, but sometimes we need support and we don't reach out for it.
00;48;40;24 - 00;49;08;29
Speaker 3
So getting it yeah, getting it. Preferably functional support where someone will actually look at you as a whole and get to the root cause. And that's why I'm such huge fans of you guys, because you don't just mask the symptoms or tell people you just have to live with it. You know? I think getting good functional support is definitely one of those steps.
00;49;09;01 - 00;49;21;19
Speaker 1
Yeah, I find too, like I'm just reflecting back on your journey and your story of burnout and how you had the massage therapist kind of like coming to your world.
00;49;21;21 - 00;49;22;18
Speaker 3
Yes.
00;49;22;20 - 00;49;37;07
Speaker 1
And I imagine correct me if I'm wrong, but I imagine you probably went doing the things that you just mentioned there when you were like you went out in the morning in the car with your rug, sipping on your coffee in the sunshine.
00;49;37;10 - 00;50;08;08
Speaker 3
No, none. I had no self-care. Yeah, I didn't care and I didn't realise I didn't care. I was an absolute zombie who was just existing in this world for pleasing, not pleasing others. Yes, but obviously, as my son's mom, he was my priority and and I put him before me in that situation. But I you know, there is a balance.
00;50;08;08 - 00;50;17;16
Speaker 3
You can do that. And I just I just neglected myself. Yeah. And I got very caught up in the stress.
00;50;17;22 - 00;50;42;26
Speaker 1
Yeah. Yeah. And yeah. And when someone is in that like deep burnt out zombie Jared, it's really hot. Like most people know. Most people in order to get sunshine and eat and maybe your body, but sometimes, often you need a bit of a guide, I guess like a guide to come in to your to say yes, not even to give you permission, but teach you how to give permission to your self.
00;50;42;28 - 00;50;43;20
Speaker 3
Yes.
00;50;43;22 - 00;50;51;15
Speaker 1
To care for yourself. Yeah. And that's not often the blocker for people is that. Yeah. So why can't you quit.
00;50;51;17 - 00;51;16;08
Speaker 3
Yeah I, I was doing the complete opposite of all the things without even a second thought for my well-being. And my only focus was my son's well-being and getting him better. I didn't even realise. I didn't even realise I was neglecting myself. And yeah, my, my friend I guess forced me to stop and do something for me. Mm hmm.
00;51;16;12 - 00;51;45;19
Speaker 3
And the next day that I. I will never forget that feeling. I remember driving somewhere and I thought, Oh, my goodness, I feel happy. I had. I had forgotten what happy felt like. Yeah, Yeah. And then it was like, I want more of this. Yeah. And yeah. And that's why I started going to her weekly. And not only that, she was a sounding board because we were friends, I was able to vent to her, you know.
00;51;45;21 - 00;51;53;18
Speaker 3
So she was like a free counsellor. I mean, I was having counselling support from the hospital as well, but yeah.
00;51;53;20 - 00;52;18;03
Speaker 1
Yeah. So awesome. Well, I'm so glad. I think like, especially all the people in your world who would be working with you and worked with you in the past, that yeah, I always say my messages, my message and so yeah, guys, very hard stuff. Yeah. I can come out of it. Yeah. So much more wisdom and grace than just the impact you can then have is like a beautiful ripple effect out.
00;52;18;10 - 00;52;47;02
Speaker 3
Absolutely. And just touching on that, we tend to a lot of us tend to wait until we're broken and then seek out to get fixed. I'm really since my journey and studying health coaching and all the things I'm really on prevention over cure like why why wait till we need stuff. There are simple things we can do daily so that when we do encounter stress, we can manage it better.
00;52;47;04 - 00;53;11;29
Speaker 3
And we And if I had these tools before my son got sick, a lot of these tools, it could have helped in some of that prevention. And that's why I went on to be a kids yoga teacher. When I started over, I was like, Wow, kids taught this in school because Breathwork is connected to your ego. Obviously. And I went, I need to you know, if I knew this when I went through some stress when I was a child.
00;53;11;29 - 00;53;18;12
Speaker 3
And it's it's like if I had these tools just to help make it better.
00;53;18;14 - 00;53;19;13
Speaker 1
Yeah.
00;53;19;16 - 00;53;20;04
Speaker 3
Yeah.
00;53;20;06 - 00;53;33;23
Speaker 1
Yeah. It's very cool. Well, if any of our listeners are interested in explore and Breathwork or anything else that you do, we've been chatting about how can they get in touch with you the best way.
00;53;33;25 - 00;54;06;17
Speaker 3
Okay. Best way would be. I have not long started a business page on Facebook and Instagram, which I'm going to get better at. I have a love hate relationship with social media, but I realise it's important for business. So it's called calm minds and healthy bodies. So often when I'm launching stuff or offering services, I will post on there with my phone number.
00;54;06;17 - 00;54;11;17
Speaker 3
So most people text me or shoot me a message through email.
00;54;11;19 - 00;54;16;17
Speaker 1
Awesome. I'll make sure all that's in the show art so that people can find you easily.
00;54;16;19 - 00;54;18;03
Speaker 3
Thank you. Lovely. Lovely.
00;54;18;03 - 00;54;21;24
Speaker 1
Thank you so much for coming on. It's been so good to chat.
00;54;21;27 - 00;54;54;05
Speaker 3
Yes, I'm. I'm so I'm just. I'm so excited to finally connect and and like, the work you guys do is phenomenal. And I think I actually found you because I was I had I have six clients. I'm always I'm a server. I'm always trying to help people and I can't help everyone. And so I delegates and so many people sit in my seat and they've been saying doctors for years, but not getting better.
00;54;54;05 - 00;54;59;23
Speaker 3
And I'm like, you need a functional practitioner. Do you know how many people do not know what a functional practitioner for?
00;54;59;23 - 00;55;01;17
Speaker 1
Many. So many.
00;55;01;19 - 00;55;02;04
Speaker 3
Yes.
00;55;02;04 - 00;55;12;26
Speaker 1
So sometimes they just say, Oh, it's kind of like a natural path. Nutrition is that, you know, we're using like lab testing and we also go through the roots cause that other patients don't usually.
00;55;12;28 - 00;55;26;14
Speaker 3
Yes. And so obviously I'm going to share this, so my community will be hearing it. And so I'm like, Well, how can I say this today? I want you to have a bit of a shout out to now.
00;55;26;14 - 00;55;30;24
Speaker 1
Thank you so much. Kindred spirits.
00;55;30;27 - 00;55;41;26
Speaker 3
Yes. So, yes, I want my community listening to these to look you up and give you a follow on socials because you have amazing value.
00;55;41;28 - 00;55;57;17
Speaker 1
Thank you so much. Thank you so much for listening. We so appreciate you. If you'd like to give us extra smiles, drop us a review and spread the love. By sharing this episode, you.
00;55;57;17 - 00;56;15;15
Speaker 2
Can also write your own state of burnout and the root Cause contributors by taking out ending body burnout assessment on our website. And if you're interested in learning about our group one on one ending body burnout programs should just DM via Instagram or Facebook have the best day ever.
